“I’d risk that, sir.  I could get together some men in Calcutta, and I’d hope to be back here in a couple of days.”

“Well, well, Burke, you’d wheedle the Mogul himself.  Anyone could tell you’re an Irishman.  Get along, then; do your best, and if you don’t come back I’ll try to take Chandernagore without you.”

He smiled as he slapped Desmond on the shoulder.  Well pleased with his ready consent, Desmond hurried away, got a horse, and riding hard reached Calcutta by eight o’clock and went straight to Mr. Merriman.  Explaining what was afoot, he asked for the loan of the men of the Hormuzzeer.  Merriman at once agreed; Captain Barker was a friend of Peloti’s; and he needed no stronger inducement.

Desmond hurried down to the river; the Hormuzzeer was lying off Cruttenden Ghat; and Mr. Toley for once broke through his settled sadness of demeanor when he learned of the expedition proposed.

While Toley collected the crew and made his preparations, Desmond consulted a pilot.  The Good Intent had passed Calcutta an hour before; but the man said that, though favored by the wind, she would scarcely get past the bar at Mayapur on the evening tide.  She might do so if exceptionally lucky; in that case there would be very little chance of overtaking her.

Less than two hours after Desmond reached Calcutta two budgeros left Cruttenden Ghat.  Each was provided with a double complement of men, and although the sails filled with a strong following wind, their oars were kept constantly in play.  The passengers on board were for the most part unaccustomed to this luxurious mode of traveling.  There were a dozen lascars; Hossain the serang; Karim, the man saved by Desmond at Chandernagore; Bulger and the second mate of the Hormuzzeer, and Mr. Toley, who, like Desmond and the serang, was clothed, much to Bulger’s amusement, as a fairly well-to-do ryot.

For some hours the tide was contrary; but when it turned, the budgeros, under the combined impulses of sail, oar and current, made swift progress, arousing some curiosity among the crews of riverside craft, little accustomed to the sight of budgeros moving so rapidly.

Approaching Mayapur, Desmond descried the spars of the Good Intent a long way ahead.  Was there enough water to allow her to pass the bar? he wondered.  Apparently there was, for she kept straight on her course under full sail.  Desmond bit his lips with vexation, and had almost given up hope, though he did not permit any slackening of speed, when to his joy he saw the vessel strike her topsails, then the rest of her canvas.

He at once ran his boats to the shore at Mayapur.  There were a number of river craft at the place, so that the movements of his budgeros, if observed from the Good Intent, were not likely to awaken suspicion.  On landing he went to the house of a native merchant, Babu Aghor Nath Bose, to whom he had a letter from Mr. Merriman.